Concentric shield for cables



Nov. 6, 1934.

Conductor H. NYQUIST coNcENTRIC SHIELD FOR CABLES Filed June '7. 1952 INVENTCR ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 6 1934 1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONCENTRIC SHIELD FOR CABLES Harry Nyquist, Millburn, N. J., assignor to- American Telephone and Telegraph Company, a corporation of New York Application' June 7, 1932, Serial No. 615,918

1 Claim. (Cl. 179-78) This invention relates to multi-conductor Figure 1 of which is a transverse cross-section cables and has particular reference to arrangeshowing the relative positions of the sheath, the ments for shielding certain of the conductors of intermediate shield, and two groups of conducsuch a cable from other conductors of the cable. tors (for simplicity only a few of the conductors 5 This application is a continuation in part of my are actually shown); and Figure 2 is a longi- 50 application, Serial No. 379,842,1iled July 19, 1929, tudinal section along the lines 2 2 of Figure 1, now Patent No. 1,871,906, granted Aug. 16, 1932. showing a portion of the layers of the shield un- In order to transmit currents of the same fre- Wrapped. quency in both directions within the same cable, In order to design a proper shield for the purand more particularly when the currents to be poses above set forth, and in order to give proper 65 transmitted are of carrier frequencies, it is deweight to the merits of different types of shields, sirable that the conductors used for transmitting it is desirable to have available a quantitative in one direction be shielded from those transtheory to give at least the rst approximation mitting in the opposite direction. Accordingly, of the shielding effects.

it is proposed to arrange the conductors of a In case of low frequencies, the calculations of 70 cable in two concentric groups with a concenthe shielding eiects are simplied by the astric shield between the two groups of conductors. Sumptiel'l that the currents in the shield dis- In such an arrangement of the cable those contribute themselves uniformly and in phase. In ductors Within the shield may all be used for the case of the higher carrier frequencies with transmitting carrier frequencies in one direction which We are now concerned, this assumption is 7 i while the return channels for transmission in no longer permissible unless the shields are very the opposite direction will be applied to the conthin. It is necessary to `recognize that the energy ductors in the other concentric group. The is Dl'OPagdted through the Shield in the form shield has the elTect of reducing so-called near Of electromagnetic waves which are prepagated end crosstalk since the weak attenuated curwith a nite velocity. The differential equations 80 rents coming in at a repeater point are in a fOr SilCh eleCtrOIIlagnetic Waves are known accompartment of the cable shielded from the Culeflely hilt the labor 0f integrating them in large amplied currents entering the conductors their aCCUlate form iS DrOhibtiVe. In the folin the other compartment of the cable, lowing discussion an approximate theory will be Preferably, the cable with the concentric Outlined which it is thought will be amply ac- 85 shield is formed by arranging a group of concurate fOr practical purposes. ductors into a cylindrical bundle, spirally wrap- The Cable t0 be Considered herein iS made up ping wide and thin tapes of soft iron alternated of the usual cylindrical lead sheath within which in layers with copper or other suitable material the conductors are arranged in the usual fashion upon the cylindrical bundle of wires, and then eXeeDt that they are Separated iIltO tWO equal 90 mounting another group of wires, preferably 0r substantially equal separate concentric groups equal in number, outside of the shielding tapes by means of acylindrical concentric shield. When in the form or a concentric cylindrical bundle a Signal iS transmitted Over any Circuit in this upon which the outer shield of lead or other cable, it is permissible to consider an electromaterial is applied in the usual manner. While magnetic iield as spreading out from this cir- 9r various materials may be used, iron, and particucuit in the form of awave motion. This wave larly soft iron, is preferred for one group of the reaches other conductors and may induce curalternating layers, because the product of the rents and electromotive forces in other circuits permeability by the conductivity of the iron is unless they are perfectly balanced. The rst large, thereby making its attenuating effect large, of these circuits may be called the disturbing cir- 100 and furthermore, the ratio of the permeability cuit and the other the disturbed. If the disturbof the iron to its conductivity is quite different ing and disturbed CilCllit are 0h ODDOSite Sides from that of the copper or other conductive maof the shield, it is obvious that the disturbance terial, which may be used for the other alteris reduced due to the attenuation, and such renating layers, with the result that the reflection fleCtiOnS as may OCCHI', in the Sheld- 105 losses undergone by an interfering wave in pene- The electromagnetic condition of a cable is trating through the shield are large. given by specifying the electric and magnetic eld The invention will now be more fully underboth as to magnitude and direction at every stood from the following description, when read point and at every instant. The problem will be in connection with the accompanying drawing, greatly simplified by coniining attention to one 1101 frequency component of these fields, that is to say, one of the components obtained by making a Fourier analysis of the fields over a sufficiently long time. It will be understood that this analysis is carried out at every point and relates to the directional components of the elds as well as to their magnitude. Having thus separated out one frequency component, the electric and magnetic vectors at any given point may have any one of several relations which will be discussed briefly in turn.

In the following discussion E is the electric field, I-I is the magnetic iield,'C the currentV density, a the permeability, fr the conductance, and c is ratio of the electromagnetic unit of current to the electrostatic unit of current, or conversely it is the ratio of the electrostatic unit of E. M. F to the electromagnetic unit of E. lVl. F. These quantities are to be measured in electromagnetic units.k It will be convenient to limit consideration to those waves which travell at right angles to the shield, that is to say, to those Waves whose (magnetic and electric fields are both parallel to the surface of the shield. These waves travel either directly toward or directly away from the shield. If they travel towardA the shield, they suffer partial reflection at the surface which will be more fully discussed below. The portion n be deferred for'the time being.

1. Attenuation of perpendicular wave in a plane metallic conductor While the shield is actually cylindrical, it will be permissible to consider a plane'shield of the same thickness, as the error involved is very small unless the inner diameter of the shield is small in comparison with the outer one. It Will be assumed thatthe shield is homogeneous and of uniform thickness.

For the time being, it will also beassumedthat the Waves are plane,V polarized and infinite in extent. Inside of the conductor comprising the shield we are interested in two vectors in addition to the two fields, namely, the iiux density B=pH and the current density C=1E. (The vdisplacement current maybe neglected in comparison with the conduction current in other words, the capacity of a cubic centimeter of the material may be neglected in comparison with its conductance.)

The manner in which the waves are propagated inside of the shield is determined by two well-known physical'laws: (1) the'law that thel cutting of magnetic lines of force producesan electriceld; and (2) the law that a current pro-1 duces a magnetic field.

The mathematical expression for the first lawv in the form of a diiferential equation is, (Where t represents time), f

Vreduces to each way.

propagation is along a single axis. Let a be the direction of propagation, the direction of the electric field and y the direction of the magnetic field. Then Equation (l) reduces to The subscripts y and :c applied to B and E indicate the axes of the respective iields.

The second law referred to above according to which current produces a magnetic iield, is given `by the expression WC-:curl H (2) which, in the case of the wave we are considering,

Substituting the value ,cH and E for B and C, respectively, in Equations (la) and (2a) they become --oZHy/dt=dEX/dzy (1b) 95 and If EX is eliminated between these equations by differentiation of Equation (2b) with respect to z and substituting, we have Likewise, eliminating Hy by Adifferentiating Equation (1b) with respect to z and Equation (2b) with respect to t, We have The law of propagation of Hy expressed in (3) is the same as the law of propagation of Ex expressed in 4(Il). v

It may be shown that Equation (3) is equivalent to Ify=llle+fwfePz (3a) where Mis a constant, 'w is 21r times the frequency 115 and P, the propagation constant, is given by the expression v P=a+=1/1`41rcorrp from which it follows, if a that o===1/21rwo'p (5a) a and being ,the attenuation constant and the wave constant, respectively. c

imilarly itY may be shown that Equation (4) is equivalent to' and ,u are both real, 120,

where N is also a constant and the other quantities have the same values as in Equation (3a). 13B

i In `evaluating the expression for the attenuation constant a as given in Equation (5a), it should `be Vremembered that the quantities are in electromagnetic units. vFor the permeability the ordinary numerical value which makes the permeability of air unity may be used. For the conductivity a it is necessary to take the numerical value asexpressedin mhos per cm* and *Thismeans the conductance of a cube one centimeter multiply them by 104. With these values substituted, the attenuation will be given in nepers per cm. In order to express the attenuation in decibels (db) per inch, the attenuationconstant obtained should be further multiplied by 8.69, the ratio of the neper to the decibel, and by 2.54, the ratio of the inch to the centimeter. The result thus obtained for copper is per inch, where f is expressed in cycles per second. For lead, the corresponding attenuation is approximately In the case of iron, the computation is cornplicated by the fact that the permeability is not real, that is to say, there is a hysteresis loop. It will be sufficient, in order to obtain a rst approximation to the effect of hysteresis, to assume that the hysteresis loop is in the form of an ellipse, inclined to the axes in a similar manner to the hysteresis loop. Just as we say that the electrical admittance of a network having this kind of loop is a complex quantity R-l-z'sc, so we may say in the present case that nzm-in, Where m and n are positive real quantities. The quantity m is obtained by dividing the value of B, corresponding to the maximum value of H on the equivalent ellipse, by the maximum value o1" H; and n is obtained by dividing the value of B, corresponding to H =O, by the maximum value of H. It is clear from a comparison of the expression n=min with Formula (5) that the effect of hysteresis is to increase the attenuation a due to the component m of the permeability, and decrease the wave constant due to the eiect of the component n of the permeability; in other Words, to increase both the attenuation and the velocity.

Assuming that n may be neglected and that an iron is available having a conductivity onesixth that of copper and a permeability of 600, the attenuation would be ten times that of copper or ssw/db per inch.

2. Oblique incidence We are still dealing with a large plane shield, and a plane and plane polarized wave, but the Wave is propagated in a direction which is not perpendicular to the plane of the shield in the air. The direction of propagation within the shield is, however, substantially perpendicular to the plane of the shield. Upon entering the shield, the direction of the wave is altered; this follows from the fact that the velocity is very much less in the conductor than in the air. In the case of a wave of frequency of e() kc., the velocity in copper is 8.4xl03 cm. per second, Whereas its velocity in air is 3x1010 cm. per second. In other Words, the velocity in air is about 3.6xl()6 times as great as in the metal. It will be obvious that a Wave striking the metal even at a considerable angle to the normal will travel substantially parallel to the normal inside the metal. For this reason -the attenuation of the wave is substantially the same regardless of whether the incidence of the wave is normal or oblique.

3. Cylindrical shield Here it is convenient to introduce the principle known as Huygens construction. In accordance with this construction the wave at any interior point of the shield can be looked upon as the resultant of a large number 4of small Waves. At each point of the surface of the shield, We may consider that a small hemispherical wave is set up and spreads equally in all directions. When all these spherical wavelets are summed up at any interior point of a plane shield, values of Hy and Ex are obtained which are equal to those given in equations (3a) and (4a). This method of construction will also enable us to estimate the effect of a cylindrical shield. If the waves are traveling outward through the shield, the spherical waves that reach the outer surface do not reinforce one another to the same extent that they would if the shield were plane. In other words, the Wave traveling outward is diminished slightly more than it would be in a plane shield. If the wave is traveling inward the opposite is true. This eect, however, which is an effect of spreading of the energy in the case of outgoing waves and a concentration in the case of incoming waves, exists whether the shield is present or not, and since we are particularly interested in the increase in attenuation which the shields produce, it will be permissible to use the ligure obtained for a plane shield.

4. Reflection in infinite space The space is assumed infinite in order to avoid consideration of multiple reflections which are bound to occur in any practical case. Moreover, both the wave and the shield are assumed to be plane and parallel to each other and the wave `is plane polarized.

From equations (2a) and (5) We have, designating the electric eld Within the conductor Ext and the magnetic neld within the conductor Hyt,

The equations corresponding to (2a) and (la) in air are leading to the expressions Ei=c Hyi, and (9a) E1r=c Hyr (10a) Substituting for the Es in (6) the values given in (8), (9a) and (10a), equation (6) becomes Solving the simultaneous equations (6a) and (7) in terms of Hyt and Hyr, respectively, We get mete/(ewa/ Tlffw 11) Substituting in (11) and (12) the expression for I-Is in terms of the Es given in (8), (9a) and (10a) is small, equations (12) and (12a) mean that the reflected wave is substantially equal to the incident wave; equation (11) indicates that the entering wave has substantially twice the magl .'y/wlL/W/C Y (about). In copper this fraction is about 4x10- at l0-kof l These are the relationsfor the wavev entering the conductor. On leaving the conductor there is a similar reflection phenomenon; .It will be seen that the expressions .orvthe reflected and transmitted wave are obtained from(l1`),f(l1a), (12) and (12a) byinterchanging the two` quantities c and ,Y v

`w/iwii/f'rt'er.

In particular it Will be seen that the electric eld is multiplied by 2 and the magnetic eld by 1x10-7,', yThe net result of the two reflections is to multiply both the electric and the magnetic iields by 8X10, which corresponds to a reflection loss of about 120 dbforthe combined effectv of entering and leaving a copper shield.

5. Multiplicity of surfaces Fromy the result just obtained it wouldat first appear that'reflectionsl necessarily play an important part in reducing the intensity of the wave. It might evengbe thought that the artificial production of reflections obtained by separating successive shields by an air space would be ben iicial. This, howevenis not the case.

Consider the situation where two shields are separated by a distance of one cm. The wave strikes the first shield and is in large measure reected and in part transmitted. The transmitted Wave penetrates the shield with attenua-Y tion and atthe opposite surface vof the shield is in partvreiiected and in part transmitted into the air space. The reflected wave travels very slowly back through the metal and may be left for the moment `,while Vwe follow the Wave which is transmitted. Consider its electric field, (Ex). If. the electricl eld of the vincident wave (at this second reflection) `be assumed to have a value l, the value of the reflected waveis 'also about 1 and that of the transmitted'wave about 2. Thetransmitted wave crosses the one cm. air space between the shields without attenuation and with very vlittle phase shift.l vWhen it strikes the second shield it is in part reflected and in part transmitted. Thereflected waveis almost -as great as the incident but not quite,'havingY lost a" small kfraction which. goes into the transmitted wave. The reecteid wave returns to the first shield where its electric field is again diminished by a small amount;"however, the 'main portion `is reiiected to the second shield again. Thus there is a large number of successive' reflections and at each reflection the wavegives up a portion of its electric field to one or the other ofthe shields. Due'to the small phase shift involved these incre- 'ments in electric field transmittedl tothe shields add substantially in phase. Now the original value of the'wave transmitted throughs the air 1s 2. The tvvowaves builtup in the two conductors as a result `of themultiple reflections are each of magnitude one. In other words each is equal to the incident wavebefor'e Yemerging from the first shield. The wave thus built up in the second shield is therefore ofthe 'same strength as it Would-have been if 14there had ybeen -no-air'gap. Now consider` the wave of value l' built up in the iirst shield. This is theresult of the odd 'numbered 4reflections and Atherefore *the electric field is reversed in phase. Before this' wave pro-v ceeds back into the first shield it combines with the original reflected wave (of value 1) which we previously left being slowly propagated back through the rst shield. As both Waves are sub s tantially equal the net result by way of a wave returned into the first shield is substantially zero. It will be apparent then that the air space is of substantially no effect. Y

If, however, the intervening space had caused considerable phase shift or if it had produced even a relatively small amount of attenuation, its effect would have been appreciable. In particular it would seem that if two diiferent metals having different-ratios ,1i/a are used for making up the shield, they should be alternated in relativelyy thin layers to take advantage or" the reflections at their adjoining surfaces. The significance of the ratio 11./ a is clear irom'equations (11), (11a), (l2), and (12a) which show that the relative values of the transmitted and reflected waves are functions of iw /i/fiw a and hence of the ratio of permeability ,t to conductivity a. Y

6. Rejiectimt at oblique incidence The computation of the reflection coefficient at oblique incidence is more diflicult than the corresponding computations for normal incidence as given under heading 4. Moreover it turned out (see heading 5) that when the reflection coefficients had been found for'the case `of normal incidencefthey had no appreciable bearing on the effect produced by the shield. It may, therefore, be reasonably questioned whether it is worth while to carry out the computations for the case of oblique incidence. In any event it can be seen from physical considerations that the reflection coeiiicients and reflection losses do not differ in kind but merely in degree from those obtained for normal incidence. This being the case Athe same general arguments as were used above can be employedto show that the reflections at two sui'- iaces separated by an air space are substantially cancelled out in the case of oblique incidence, as well asin the case of normal incidence.

7'. Design rof shield 1/21rwolt where a andy. are the conductivity and permeability, respectively, in electromagnetic` units. In order to make the attenuation of each layer of the shield as great as possible Vfor a given thickness', itis desirable, therefore, that the product L a be as large as possible. It is also desirable that the `quotient fi/a for alternate layers of the shield ldifer as much as possible from the corresponding I quotient for the intervening layers. This insures a certain reflection loss in the shield in addition tothe attenuation loss, because the amount vof reflection at each interface depends ori a -diiference vin Vthe -values of the'quot'ient for the matet As has already been ISU rials on the two sides, as already explained under heading 5. Each layer should also be thick enough, so that a wave transmitted through it suffers a phase shift oi a radian or. more, or an attenuation at least of the order of a neper or more, to prevent mutual cancellation of the refiections from the surface of that layer, as also previously discussed.

In comparing various substances that might be available for the two materials in the, alternating layers, the points to be kept in mind are that for both materials the product u a should be as large as possible and that the ratio ,rr/a should be as much diiierent as possible from one material to the other. The best non-magnetic substances are copper, silver and aluminum, There is very little choice in performance among these three. Taking copper as representative and comparing it with, say, iron, it is found that the conductiv ity a is decreased in the ratio of 6:1 in going from copper to iron. Further, the permeability c is increased in a very much greater ratio, possibly as much as 600:1. If we assume the latter iigure the product a fr is increased in the ratio of 100:1 which means that the attenuation constant a is increased in the ratio of 10:1 and the required thickness of shield for a given attenuation is decreased in the ratio 1:10. In addition the ratio p/e is increased in a ratio of about 3600 1 in going from copper to iron, and there is, therefore, a substantial reflection loss. For both of these reasons it seems, therefore, that iron should be alternated with copper.

From a mechanical standpoint it seems that the most practicable way of applying the shield is to make it in the form of a tape and wind it around the inner core of conductors.

The figures on the drawing show the construction contemplated. Fig. 1 shows the location of the shield with respect to the remainder of the cable. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal cross-section of the shield showing the inside appearance of the shield and a portion of its layers unwrapped. 1n order to make the interior appearance clear, all of the conductors but one have been removed from the inside in this gure.

It will be obvious that the general principles herein disclosed may be embodied in many other organizations widely diierent from those illustrated, without departing from the spirit of the invention as deiined in the following claim.

What is claimed is:

In a system for protecting one conductor in a cable from the inductive effect of another conductor therein comprising a shield positioned between the said conductors, the said shield having at least two contiguous layers of dissimilar materials, one characterized by a high ratio of permeability to conductivity and the other by a low ratio of permeability to conductivity but each characterized by a large product of permeability and conductivity, the method which consists in reflecting from that surface of the shield nearer to the source of the disturbing wave a portion of the said wave, transmitting the remainder of the said wave through the rst layer of the shield and attenuating the said wave during such transmission, reecting a portion or" the said attenuated wave from the junction between the said layers and transmitting to the second layer that portion of the wave not reiiected, then attenuating by and within the said second layer the portion of the wave transmitted to that layer and reilecting a part of the said wave from the outer surface of the said second layer.

HARRY NYQUIST. 

